Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross long-term test review: report 2

The car Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross 1.5 3 2WD Run by Max Edleston, junior photographer

Why it’s here To prove that Mitsubishi can fight among the best in the hotly contested family SUV class

Needs to Be comfortable and economical for long trips and function as a photographer’s mobile office when needed

Mileage 5828 Price £23,495 Target Price £22,178 Price as tested £24,295 Test economy 33.7mpg Official economy 36.2mpg (WLTP combined) 

14 August 2019 – Room for improvement

First impressions matter. Be they your first words in a job interview, your greeting on a first date or the first few miles in your new car, that initial interaction is a make-or-break moment. And having now spent a few extremely busy weeks with my new Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, travelling the length and breadth of the UK’s motorway network for various What Car? shoots, I've begun to bond with the car and figure out what it’s all about.

Let’s start with interior space, something that's probably more important to me than most. After all, if my car can’t handle all of my photography gear, we’re not going to get on well. And in this regard, the Eclipse Cross is proving to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, there’s plenty of space for my odds and ends around the driver’s seat and centre console. On the other, however, the boot is proving to be an awkward shape, so although there’s substantially more space in the Mitsubishi than there was in the Suzuki Vitara I had previously, it’s the Suzuki that was easier to load up. Indeed, I find myself having to shift all my bags and cases around to make sure everything fits like some sort of vehicle-based Tetris game.

Now for some real consumer advice, and for any dog owners considering the Eclipse Cross, I can report that our two excitable black labradors slotted into the boot with ease when I was dispatched to pick them up from the kennels. I wouldn’t want them to be stuck back there for too long, though, because there’s not enough space for both to lie down and relax, which I’m sure would lead to some very unhappy animals on a long trip to the beach. And there’s very little that’s sadder in life than an unhappy dog.

So, how much is the Eclipse Cross costing me to run, I hear you ask? Again, since I’m spending so much time behind the wheel, this is especially important to me. After all, it’s no use being the last one to the photo shoot location – and therefore missing that epic sunrise shot you’d set out to capture – because you were filling up at the services multiple times. Well, it’s reasonably good news, because my average is currently 33.7mpg – a little way off the official 36.2mpg this car managed in the WLTP fuel economy test. There are plenty of miles still to cover, though, so we’ll see if I can match the official figure over time, especially if I can modulate my right foot a bit more for softer acceleration.

Certainly, though, filling up the Eclipse Cross is taking some getting used to, since I’ve mostly owned smaller cars previously that might cost me £40 or so to fill from empty. So my eyebrows were definitely raised when filling the Eclipse Cross turned out to cost closer to £70 for a full tank. With greater space, then, comes bigger bills.

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